IITKGP

Dibyendu Samanta

Associate Professor

Bio Science

+91-3222-284576

dibyendu.samanta@iitkgp.ac.in

Prospective PhD students (Preferably, M.Tech in Biotechnology/related field OR M.Sc in Biochemistry/Biotechnology/ Microbiology/Molecular Biology) may contact directly to Dr. Samanta (email: dibyendu.samanta@iitkgp.ac.in) | Current Projects: Molecular and structural basis of cell-cell adhesion; How bacterial pathogen utilize host adhesion molecules as their entry receptors; Structural and molecular basis of T cell costimulation |

Responsibilities

  • Program Officer, NSO

Research Areas

  • Protein engineering
  • Protein structure-function relation
  • Cell adhesion biology
  • Host-pathogen (bacteria) interaction
  • Structural biology of immune receptors
PI: Dr. Dibyendu Samanta, Associate Professor, School of Bioscience, IIT Kharagpur.
PhD in Biophysics and Molecular Biology (2009), University of Calcutta, India
Post-Doctoral Fellow: Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA (2009-2013)
Associate Faculty: Dept. of Biochemistry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA (2013-2015)
Assistant Professor: School of Bioscience, IIT Kharagpur (2015-2023)

Research Statement: Dr. Dibyendu Samanta's laboratory focuses on structure-function relationship of membrane proteins, particularly membrane-bound immunoglobulin super-family (IgSF) members and classical cadherins. These IgSFs and cadherins play vital roles in a number of cellular and physiological processes including cell-cell adhesion, immune modulation and host-pathogen interaction. Dr. Samanta's lab aims to understand the detail molecular mechanisms of interactions among IgSF members, and finally modulate these interactions utilizing structure-guided protein engineering approach. Understanding and engineering of these cell surface proteins will provide further insights for the development of novel protein-based therapeutics. Currently, Dr. Samant's lab working on the following areas:

1. Understanding the mechanism of nectin and cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion

2. Understanding molecular and structural bases of T cell costimulation

3. Deciphering the mechanism of entry of Mycobacterium tuberculosis into pneumocytes
  • Heterophilic recognition between E-cadherin and N-cadherin relies on same canonical binding interface as required for E-cadherin homodimerization Dash S., Duraivelan K., Hansda A., Kumari P., Chatterjee S., Mukherjee G., Samanta D. By Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 727 - (2022)
  • Structural and Functional Characterization of a Single-chain Peptide-MHC Molecule that Modulates Both Naive and Activated CD8+ T Cells Samanta D*, Mukherjee G*, Ramagopal UA, Chaparro RJ, Nathenson SG, DiLorenzo TP, Almo SC. (*equally contributed) By Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108 13682-13687 (2011)
  • Emerging roles of the nectin family of cell adhesion molecules in tumour-associated pathways Duraivelan K., Samanta D. By Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Reviews on Cancer 1876 - (2021)
  • An evolutionarily conserved charged residue dictates the specificity of heterophilic interactions among nectins Duraivelan K., Dash S. , Samanta D. By Biochem Biophys Res Commun 534 504-510 (2021)
  • Cadherin-mediated host-pathogen interactions Dash S., Duraivelan K. , Samanta D. By Cell Microbiol 23 1-10 (2021)
  • Structural Insights into N-terminal IgV Domain of BTNL2, a T Cell Inhibitory Molecule, Suggests a Non-canonical Binding Interface for Its Putative Receptors Basak A. J., Maiti S. , Hansda A. , Mahata D. , Duraivelan K. , Kundapura . V., Lee . , Mukherjee G. , De S. , Samanta D. By Journal of Molecular Biology 432 5938-5950 (2020)
  • Tracing the Evolution of Nectin and Nectin-Like Cell Adhesion Molecules Duraivelan K., Samanta D. By Scientific Reports 10 9434-9444 (2020)
  • Molecular and structural bases of interaction between extracellular domains of nectin-2 and N-cadherin. Duraivelan K., Basak A. J., Ghosh A. , Samanta D. By Proteins 86 1157-1164 (2018)
  • Nectin family of cell-adhesion molecules: structural and molecular aspects of function and specificity Samanta D., Almo S. By Cell Mol Life Sci 72 645-658 (2015)
  • Structure of Nectin-2 reveals determinants of homophilic and heterophilic interactions that control cell-cell adhesion Samanta D, Ramagopal UA, Rubinstein R, Vladimir V, Nathenson SG, Almo SC By Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109 14836-14840 (2012)

Principal Investigator

  • Identification and Characterization of a Novel Cell Adhesion Mechanism Mediated by Direct Interaction between E-cadherin and Nectins
  • Molecular and Structural Studies of the Role of Host Adhesion Molecules in Facilitating LpqH (19 kDa Surface Antigen) Mediated Entry of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis into Pneumocytes

Ph. D. Students

Namrata Ganguli

Area of Research: Structure-function relation of membrane proteins

Puja Kumari

Area of Research: Structure-function relation of cell-surface proteins

Sarbartha Mukherjee

Area of Research: Structural Biology of Cell Adhesion Molecules

Saumyadeep Goswami

Area of Research: Structure-function relation of cell-surface proteins

Sohini Sarkar

Area of Research: Structure-function relation of cell-surface proteins